F20-24 at Chicago 13.1: Sandberg Dominates, Babiuk Martinez Storms the Back Half

• Lauren Sandberg won the F20-24 age group in 1:20:53 (6:10/mi), holding 14th among all women from start to finish — a wire-to-wire lock.
• Margaret Gamboa climbed from 41st to 27th among women over the course of the race, closing in 6:41/mi to claim 2nd in the age group at 1:27:33.
• Miranda Babiuk Martinez made the most dramatic move in the field, surging from 128th to 44th among women to finish 5th at 1:31:05 — posting the 29th-fastest women's split from 15K to the finish.
• Lauren Devine and Kira Cella both ran their best relative segments late, each recording top-30 women's splits from 15K to the line to seal 3rd and 4th.

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In a field of 506 F20-24 finishers on a clear 60°F morning in Chicago, Lauren Sandberg ran a race that needed no drama — just precision. She settled into 14th among all women before the first checkpoint and never wavered, crossing in 1:20:53 at a 6:10/mi clip. The margin over 2nd place was a commanding six and a half minutes, and no one in the age group came close to threatening her position in the women's field all morning.

Behind her, the race for the podium was a story of patient climbers. Margaret Gamboa started conservatively, sitting 41st among women through the opening stretch, but she turned in the 24th-fastest women's split from 10K to 15K and kept grinding, finishing 2nd at 1:27:33. Lauren Devine (1:28:25) and Kira Cella (1:29:48) were running parallel races — both moving steadily forward through the second half and both posting strong late splits to lock up 3rd and 4th respectively.

The most eye-catching performance of the day beyond Sandberg's belonged to Miranda Babiuk Martinez. She was buried in 128th among women at the opening checkpoint, but she ran herself into contention over the next ten miles. By the 15K mark she had climbed to 56th, and her 29th-fastest women's split from 15K to the finish carried her all the way to 5th in the age group at 1:31:05 — a finish that required passing more than 80 women in the women's field over the course of the race.